Sports World: OJ Simpson Dies At 76; Mohun Bagan Thrash Bengaluru FC 4-0 In ISL

Welcome to the highlights of all the sporting action on 11 April 2024. The suspended match between Sumit Nagal and Denmark's Holger Rune resumed, with the Indian losing in the round of 32 at the Monte Carlo Masters. In cricket, the third T20I between United States and Canada at Houston was abandoned without a ball bowled. Elsewhere, the Hardik Pandya-led Mumbai Indians crushed Royal Challengers Bengaluru by seven wickets at the Wankhede Stadium in IPL 2024. Catch the highlights of all the sporting action across the globe on 11 April 2024, right here

Rishabh Pant has taken very little time to operate at his best after making a comeback from a horrific car crash and therefore, the X-factor player walks into India's playing eleven at the T20 World Cup, feels former England skipper Eoin Morgan. " (I would pick him) because he is the player that he is. I don't see him being hampered in anyway coming back from his car crash. For me he is a very disruptive player.

"As a leftie he can play a big role in the middle order and add a huge amount of pressure as opposed to generic right handers," said the ODI World Cup winning captain in his response to a PTI query during an interaction organised by Jio Cinema. (PTI)

Rodri, the Spain midfielder who has not lost any of his last 66 games for club and country in a run stretching back more than a year, said after City’s 3-3 draw at Real Madrid in the Champions League quarterfinals on Tuesday that he needs a break. “Every one of us can do better, even myself, but we need to rest to be honest,” Rodri told reporters after the first-leg match in the Santiago Bernabeu. “I do. I do need a rest.” (AP)

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Former sumo wrestler Akebono, who became the first-ever foreign-born yokozuna, has passed away from heart failure, local media reported. He was 54.

The final of the Indian Super League 2023-24 season will be on May 4 with the playoffs scheduled to start from April 19, the organisers of the football tournament said on Thursday. The venue of the final will be announced soon, Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), the league's organiser said. (PTI)

Olympic gold-medallist javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra is aiming to breach the 90m mark before the Paris Olympics and says the way his preparations are going, it could happen anytime soon. Chopra's best throw in competition came during the 2022 Stockholm Diamond League, where he hurled the spear to a distance of 89.94m. While he has breached 90m in training, he has yet to match it in competition. (PTI)

India's ace singles shuttler PV Sindhu has crashed out of the Badminton Asia Championships. She fought hard before losing in three games to China's Han Yue 18-21, 21-13, 17-21 in the round of 16.

After rain suspended Sumit Nagal's second-round match against Holger Rune the previous evening, the two players are back on court to resume the clash. The seventh-seeded Rune leads 6-3, 3-5 as we speak. Though Rune did the early running, Nagal has started well today and is poised to take the second set.

The start of the eagerly-awaited Masters golf championship has been delayed by two and a half hours due to bad weather at Augusta National. South Africa’s Erik van Rooyen had been due to hit the opening tee shot at 8am local time but rain was already falling when tournament officials announced at 5am that play would not get under way on time.

Mumbai Indians have won the toss and elected to bowl first against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in match 25 of Indian Premier League 2024. MI have replaced Piyush Chawla with Shreyas Gopal in their playing XI, while Will Jacks will make his debut for RCB. He replaces hard-hitting all-rounder Cameron Green.

Playing XIs

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (c), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Mohammad Nabi, Shreyas Gopal, Jasprit Bumrah, Gerald Coetzee, Akash Madhwal.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis (c), Will Jacks, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Mahipal Lomror, Reece Topley, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep.

Sumit Nagal's remarkable campaign at Monte Carlo Masters comes to an end. The top-ranked Indian singles player goes down fighting to seventh seed Holger Rune in the round of 32. Nagal clinched the second set to force a decider, but Rune eventually prevails 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. A heartening show from the Indian, nevertheless.

Lucknow Super Giants speedster Mayank Yadav is unlikely to play the next two games for the franchise, as he continues his recovery from tightness in his hip, team head coach Justin Langer has said in Lucknow. LSG take on Delhi Capitals on Friday before travelling to Kolkata for the away game on April 14.

Langer and Co. are hoping that Mayank regains full fitness before the home game against Chennai Super Kings on April 19.

Orenthal James Simpson, the American football titan-turned Hollywood actor who got embroiled in and was later acquitted of charges that he murdered his ex-wife and her boyfriend, has passed away at the age of 76. He died of cancer, his family has confirmed. Simpson's attorney also confirmed his demise to TMZ.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest running backs of all time, Simpson played in the National Football League for 11 seasons and won the Heisman Trophy in 1968 while at USC. But his image was forever tarnished by accusations of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman in June 1994.

Though he was acquitted, Simpson was found liable in 1997 in a separate civil suit brought by the victims’ families, and ordered to pay $33.5 million to family members of Nicole and Ronald.

Promising Indian wrestler Udit has secured a silver medal after a 4-5 loss to Kento Yumiya of Japan in the men's free-style 57kg final at the senior Asian Championship in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. India also bagged two bronze medals through Abhimanyou and Vicky in their respective categories.

Abhimanyou beat Begijon Kuldashev of Uzbekistan 6-5 in men's 70kg free-style, while Vicky pinned down home favourite Andrey Romanovitch Aronov 10-1 in the men's 97kg for India's third medal of the day.

Two-time world champion and Olympic bronze medalist Frank Chamizo has claimed that he turned down a bribe of USD 300,000 to deliberately lose a match at last week's European wrestling Olympic qualification tournament in Baku, Azerbaijan, Associated Press reports. Chamizo, who competes for Italy after immigrating from Cuba in 2011, ended up controversially losing the semifinal match to Azerbaijani freestyle wrestler Turan Bayramov following a disputed late call.

"I knew that I had to give double, triple in Azerbaijan, because I was fighting in their country and they had bought everyone," Chamizo claimed in remarks made to Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

Earlier today, Rutuja Bhosale won the singles rubber while the duo of Prarthana Thombare and Ankita Raina prevailed in the doubles contest as the Indian women's team beat Chinese Taipei 2-1 in a Billie Jean King Cup Asia-Oceania Group-1 tie in Changsha, China. India are currently placed third in Pool A following two wins and a loss in three outings.

China and South Korea are first and second after winning all their three matches so far.

Mohun Bagan Super Giant have thrashed Bengaluru FC 4-0 in the Indian Super League in Bengaluru. With 45 points from 21 games, the Mariners are trailing the top-placed Mumbai City FC (47) by two points.

The Islanders and the Mariners clash on April 15 at the Salt Lake Stadium, with the former hoping to retain their crown in this exciting last mile finish of the 10th season of the ISL.

That's all from us tonight. We will be back tomorrow morning, with all that's current in the world of sports. Until then, goodbye.